U.S. Dancer Quits the Bolshoi, Complaining of Bribery

Shown in 2010, Joy Womack moved to Moscow on her own at the age of 15.

James Hill for The New York Times

By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN

November 14, 2013

MOSCOW — A young dancer from Texas who last year joined the Bolshoi Ballet after graduating from its training academy here has quit the storied company after alleging that she was denied opportunities to perform and ultimately told she would have to pay a bribe of $10,000 to get a solo role.

The dancer, Joy Womack, moved to Moscow on her own at the age of 15 in 2009 to attend the Bolshoi school, which is formally known as the Moscow State Academy of Choreography. It was established in 1773, and its alumni include some of the most illustrious dancers in the history of ballet.

Ms. Womack’s allegations, which she described in a telephone interview on Thursday evening, were first reported by the Russian news site Izvestia, and they are the latest controversy to engulf the Bolshoi, which has been battered by scandal this year. A former principal dancer, Pavel V. Dmitrichenko, is on trial in Moscow on charges that he arranged an acid attack in January that nearly blinded Sergei Filin, the company’s artistic director.

In the interview, Ms. Womack said she was heartbroken to be leaving the Bolshoi. At the same time, she described a deeply troubled organization in which casting decisions were based not only on talent but also on payoffs and personal relationships. She would not confirm reports that she was moving to the Kremlin Ballet.

The Bolshoi Theater’s general director, Vladimir Urin, said in a statement on Wednesday that officials were prepared to cooperate with any law enforcement investigation, and he challenged Ms. Womack to file a complaint, something she has said she will not do.

“As for accusations of corruption among ballet officials,” Mr. Urin said, “Joy Womack should advocate her position legally.”

Ms. Womack has declined to name the Bolshoi official who said a $10,000 payment would get her a soloist role. She said the figure was mentioned after she had repeatedly pressed managers about her desire for prominent roles. Since her graduation, she was offered few chances to perform, she said.

“ ‘Don’t you understand that you are an American?’ ” Ms. Womack said she was told at one point. “ ‘You have to be smarter about this. You have to find out who you have to pay.’ ”

When a Bolshoi official mentioned the $10,000 figure, Ms. Womack said, “that was a starting bargaining point.” She added, “It’s not a secret that there are many dancers who have given presents.”

Allegations of favoritism and impropriety at the Bolshoi also arose in the acid attack trial, when Mr. Dmitrichenko accused Mr. Filin, who is married, of using his influence to initiate romantic relationships with Bolshoi ballerinas. He denied the accusation.

Ms. Womack in 2010 as an American student at the academy that feeds the Bolshoi.

James Hill for The New York Times

Ms. Womack said that since she came forward she had been “attacked by fellow dancers who are very scared” and criticized by some Bolshoi officials who said her dancing was not good enough. But she said she had only praise for Bolshoi teachers and artists: “They really are the best in the world.”

She said she had encountered bureaucratic difficulties with the Bolshoi from the start, including problems obtaining a work visa. Ms. Womack said she repeatedly asked for the “state” contract Russian dancers normally get from the theater, a government-run institution. Instead, she got a series of short-term contracts, she said, explaining that often she was not paid, and when she was, it was in cash. “The way everything went down at this theater was not very professional,” she said. “It was kind of shady.”

But Ms. Womack said her main demand was for prominent roles.

“The problem is that I wasn’t even being put into the corps de ballet,” she said. “I had spent a year waiting.”

Ms. Womack said that in September she signed a six-month contract with a salary of 198,000 rubles, just over $6,000, and was told 30 percent would be deducted for income tax, leaving about $700 a month in a city rated as one of the world’s most expensive.

The Bolshoi training also came at a high price. During her studies, Ms. Womack was nearly forced to quit because her family was struggling to pay the $18,000-a-year tuition. (Russians study there for free.) At another point, a donor from her church saved her career by paying for surgery she needed for a foot injury.

In the interview, Ms. Womack said the public break with the Bolshoi had dashed her dreams.

“Instead, I am being seen as the whistle-blower,” she said.

Correction: November 22, 2013

An article last Friday about Joy Womack, an American dancer who quit the Bolshoi Ballet after saying she was told she would have to pay a bribe of $10,000 to get a solo role, erroneously attributed a distinction to her career. She was one of the first Americans — not the first — to join the Bolshoi after graduating from its training academy in Moscow. (She was preceded by at least one other American, Anastasia Stevens, who joined in 1960.)